In the present study, self-cleaning and mechanical properties of white Portland cement by addition of commercial available TiO2 nanoparticles with the average particle size of 80 nm were investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and BET were used to characterize TiO2 nanoparticles. For determination of self-cleaning properties of TiO2-modified white cement, colorimetric tests in decolorization of C.I. Basic Red 46 (BR46) in comparison to unmodified cement samples was applied. The results indicated that with increasing the amount of TiO2 nanoparticles in modified cement, self-cleaning property of the samples increased. The mechanical properties of TiO2-modified and unmodified cement samples, such as time of setting of hydraulic cement, compressive strength of hydraulic cement mortar and flexural strength of hydraulic cement mortar were examined. The results indicated that addition of TiO2 nanoparticles up to maximum replacement level of 1.0% improved compressive and flexural strength and decreased its setting time.

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The alkaline earth metal Ba has a relatively low melting point. Because of its significantly high affinity to oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur, it is highly functional as a steel refining agent. But Ba can adversely affect the properties of steel especially the workability, because it can form a variety of inclusions. So, understanding of these inclusions is needed for improvement of the properties of steel. Thus a fundamental study in the formation behavior of non-metallic inclusions in Ba added Hyper Duplex STS melts was investigated. The amount of Ba, holding time and temperature were considered as experimental variables. The number of non-metallic inclusions decreased and the large particle size of non-metallic inclusions increased as the amount of Ba increased. The number of non-metallic inclusions also decreased and the large particle size increased with increased holding times and temperatures of molten steel.